<p class="ql-align-center">JUDGMENT OF THE COURT</p><p class="ql-align-justify">The appellant was charged in the Magistrate’s Court at Mariakani with the offence of defilement of a child contrary to Section 8(1) as read with Section 8(2) of the Sexual Offences Act. The victim was said to be 9 years old at the time of the alleged offence. She told the trial court under oath after a <em>voir dire</em> examination that on 27^thJanuary 2012, at 3 p.m. while walking to church, she was joined on the way by the appellant who was also a member of her church and therefore known to her. They walked as they chatted. Suddenly he grabbed her, brought her to the ground and defiled her. As the complainant emerged from the bush where she had been defiled she met PW3, who noted blood oozing from her mouth and back of the neck. She told him that she had been defiled by a member of her church. PW3 took her to the police station at Taru where she also informed the investigating officer that she knew the person who had defiled her. When she eventually met her mother later…</p>